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Feds interested in phased retirement left playing waiting game

By
Jack Moore

Nearly two years after Congress passed a bill allowing federal employees to ease
into retirement on a part-time basis, the Office of Personnel Management is still
finalizing regulations spelling out how exactly federal employees can join the
program.

OPM now says it hopes to have regulations finalized by October.

That can't come soon enough for many federal employees on the cusp of retirement
who are caught in the regulatory limbo.

During an exclusive online chat with OPM Director Katherine Archuleta
last month, the topic of phased retirement was top of mind for many feds.

"We are working hard on the rule," Archuleta said in response to queries about
when the new option would be available. "We are hopeful that it will be completed
in fiscal year 2014. We want to make sure we get it right, and we will have an
update soon."

Under the legislation passed by Congress in July 2012,
employees can partially retire and draw on half of their earned retirement
benefits while continuing to work part time.

OPM's draft regulations, issued more than a year ago, specified that would-be phased
retirees must have 20 years of experience and be eligible for immediate
retirement. In addition, phased retirees will have to spend at least 20 percent of
their time mentoring employees.

OPM has been fairly tight-lipped about what's taken so long to finalize the
regulations.

"I think at this point, they seem to be crossing the t's and dotting the i's,"
said Jessica Klement, legislative director for the National Active and Retired
Federal Employees Association (NARFE). "But it took us two years to get to this
point."

'It's all coming up to a crunch...'

That's left many employees in wait-and-see mode.

Tom Young, a 37-year veteran of the National Park Service, is nearing retirement
and said he thinks phased retirement could be the best option for both him and the
park service.

As a park ranger, Young, who's 55 now, faces a mandatory separation age of 57.

"So, retirement for me is right around the corner," he told Federal News Radio.
"In fact, I had planned to have retired in July of this year. However, I am now
waiting it out just a little bit more for OPM and for other reasons as well, to
find out whether or not there are going to be any more options for me."

Over the past 25 years as a park ranger at the Santa Monica Mountains National
Recreation Area in southern California, part of Young's job duties has been
training less-experienced rangers, including as search-and-rescue, emergency
response and special driving and firearms training.

The training courses he runs must compete with other duties of a full-time park
ranger. If phased retirement became available, Young said his schedule would shift
to be more training-focused.

Young said he now plans to make his retirement decision in late fall and that he
hopes OPM will have clearer answers about phased retirement by then.

"The bottom line is that I cannot hold this position without undergoing mandatory
separation by November of next year," he said. "It's all coming up to a crunch.
Time flies by very quickly, and it's been going on nearly two years since we've
had this forward motion in phased retirement. And yet, there's no final outcome."

One employee takes matters into her own hands

Some employees have given up the waiting game.

Janet Benini, associate director for the Transportation Department's International
Preparedness division, has worked for the federal government for the past 16
years.

"When they passed the [phased retirement] legislation, I thought, 'This'll be just
great,'" she said. "And I started looking into it, and I kept waiting and waiting
and waiting for the regulations."

However, when OPM finally published proposed regulations last summer, the draft
rules restricted the new option to employees eligible for immediate retirement
with at least 20 years of experience.

Even though those regulations hadn't been finalized, Benini decided to take
matters into her own hands.
She struck a deal with her bosses at DOT, who she said were helpful in coming up
with a work-around. Over the next three years, Benini plans to work a 70 percent
part-time schedule — seven work days per pay period.

But unlike phased retirement, Benini is not earning part of her annuity and has to
make a bigger contribution to her health insurance. That's because since she's
gone to 70 percent time, the government has also scaled back the portion that it
pays to 70 percent as well. On top of that, she's only accruing 70 percent of her
vacation time and sick leave each year.